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Rupert Murdoch reboots internet play in India

03

News Corp's senior vice-president for strategy Raju Narisetti is leading the media giant's investment interests in India, a source cited earlier who did not want to be named said. The New York-based media giant, which split its publishing and broadcasting units last year, has been making "targeted investments" into digital assets in south-east Asian markets recently.

Media
mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has charted a fresh investment plan to
tap into India's fast-growing consumer internet story more than a decade
after he took bets on domestic digital properties like Indya.com and
Baazee. (AP)

The
media giant is rebooting tactical investments as part of a strategy to
aggressively expand the group's digital play in markets like India,
sources aware of the development said. Murdoch's comeback coincides with
euphoric investor sentiment around India's recent billion-dollar
internet and digital startups. (AP)

News
Corp's senior vice-president for strategy Raju Narisetti is leading the
media giant's investment interests in India, a source cited earlier who
did not want to be named said. The New York-based media giant, which
split its publishing and broadcasting units last year, has been making
"targeted investments" into digital assets in south-east Asian markets
recently. (AFP)

"Because
it is widely known that News Corp has no debt and started its new
journey with $2-billion plus in cash, I am constantly and relentlessly
pitched by investment bankers on potential deals. If it makes strategic
sense, I tend to take a closer look and from that point of view, most of
Asia, including India, will always be on the radar," News Corp's
Narisetti said in an email to TOI. (AFP)

Its
recent regional investments included a stake purchase in employment
listings portal Seek Asia. The company, through REA, an online real
estate services provider in Australia, has forged partnerships in China
and Hong Kong, besides buying a $100-million stake in iProperty.com,
which has a network of sites across Asia, including in India. (Reuters)

Globally, News Corp bolstered its digital strategy with acquisitions
like Storyful, a social media news agency, and Harlequin, which will
give HarperCollins a jumpstart on its international digital expansion.
These investments, explained News Corp's CEO Robert Thomson last week in
an internal note, are part of the group's push "to grow digitally and
globally", making technology a canvas for content. (BCCL)

In
the first wave of the dot-com boom, Murdoch, after whirlwind visits to
Bangalore, had actively invested in first-generation internet startups
in India. His big buy came when News Corp paid $50 million to buy
Pradeep Kar-promoted portal Indya followed by an investment of $11
million in auction site Baazee, started by two Harvard Business School
graduates which was sold off to eBay in 2004. (Agencies)

In
the first wave of the dot-com boom, Murdoch, after whirlwind visits to
Bangalore, had actively invested in first-generation internet startups
in India. His big buy came when News Corp paid $50 million to buy
Pradeep Kar-promoted portal Indya followed by an investment of $11
million in auction site Baazee, started by two Harvard Business School
graduates which was sold off to eBay in 2004. (AFP)